Bedtime Story-The Pirate and The Princess
by tmpayne80
Summary: How does Killian help Hope get to sleep? A love story of a pirate and a princess. Only on this night, Emma is in the room as he tells it. As he tells her the story again, his mind flashes to the love story that Emma and Killian share. Spoilers come from Season 2 on up to Season 6. (No copyright infringement intended. ABC owns all rights to the characters in the story.)


Hope ran into her little bedroom, Emma chasing after her.

"Don't let the tickle monster catch you."

The blend of mother-daughter laughter brought a smile to Killian's face. The two most precious women in his life dashed into the room, both faces red from their post-bath time game of "Tickle-Monster".

Hope ran into his waiting arms.

"Uh-oh. The other Tickle Monster has you."

Hope laughed and wiggled on his lap.

"Mommy, daddy, mommy." Hope pleaded between fits of laughter.

Anyone else would have been confused. Nobody had ever told her the proper words were "mercy" or "uncle". It hadn't mattered while in the safety of her room.

He pointed to his cheek.

Hope leaned over and kissed it.

Hope's kisses were second only to Emma's.

Every sweet kiss Emma gave reminded him of how lucky he was. None would ever top them., nobody before hers and nobody that might come after. Of the countless kisses between them, the sweetest had come at the beginning.

Hope's innocent, persuasive voice broke through his brief flash of thought.

"Tell me the story again, daddy."

Killian rejoiced in his mind every time his daughter wanted to hear their love story. Though carefully crafted to lull his daughter to sleep, it had been the story that only a fairy tale out of a book could match.

"Okay, Love."

Killian lifted the princess bed spread up to her small chest. His eyes stayed on two dancing, yet tired eyes of his only child.

"Ready?"

"Yes, Daddy."

Killian rubbed his hands together. The newly acquired ability to do anything without his hook, but a functioning transplanted hand, still stunned his senses.

"In two different lands lived a pirate with an empty heart and beautiful princess with so much love in her heart but no one to give it to. The princess had had gone down every street in her kingdom, still no one she met released it from her heart."

Killian glanced from the corner of his eye to see Emma standing in the doorway, her silhouette causing him to lose track of where he was.

The picture in his head of that princess always seemed to come back to the Emma he'd first encountered. An Emma Swann that had lived in her own fortress of distrust. Even when he'd tried to get a glimpse of the woman behind the walls, she'd blocked him out at every attempt.

Hope's eyes lit up

"Mommy! Listen to daddy's story with me, please."

Emma's body told of exhaustion from a long day but her soft smile as she eased herself down next to Killian spoke of curiosity. She leaned in for a brief kiss, distracting him from the story he'd memorized.

"Daddy…Daddy…The story isn't over."

Emma rested her head on his shoulder.

"The story?"

"The story, Daddy."

Emma reach for the hand closest to her, running her finger over his wedding band.

"One day an evil queen brought the pirate to the princess' land. The evil queen had planned to grab the princess while she traveled the bustling street of one of the villages. The king would surely surrender his position as king for the sake of his only daughter."

Hope's eyes looked at him lost in the suspense despite knowing the whole story by heart.

"The pirate fell in love with the beautiful princess from the time he'd seen her through his magic spy glass. His heart began to fill with something he'd never known, a kind of magic he'd never experienced before that moment.

Killian, as he spoke, remembered how he'd stand at a distance and watch her live her life. Emma had captured his attention and his future, without him ever knowing it. Though his plans had been less than honorable in some parts of his mind, his heart would not let go of the idea that she was his savior. She inhabited his every thought and dream.

"The pirate's half-empty heart had prevented him from carrying out the evil queen's devious plans. The evil queen, enraged by his failure, condemned he and his crew to where the evil queen had first discovered them. Her actions only filled his heart faster."

Hope's suspense morphed into an expectant grin.

Killian knew that Cora would have done the same if it hadn't been for other factors. Like the pirate of his story, his undeniable attraction to Emma would've had the same effect.

"With a magic bean and a nearly full heart, he returned to the princess' land. Just as the evil queen was about to grab her, the pirate hid the princess away on his ship, in an enchanted cabin that no one knew about but him. The pirate sailed a course led by miraculous winds. Before leaving the deck of his ship, the princess kissed him before he knew it was coming. The pirates heart overflowed with this strange magic in that moment. That extra magic, extra love flowed out of her. The joy she'd been searching for had been found in this pirate, someone her father called a villain in the past. The exchange confused them both, yet it provided each what they wanted most."

Emma squeezed the new hand.

His return to Storybrooke hadn't been under the conditions he'd preferred. Instead of returning to Neverland, his heart had turned him around at a time of greatest need for Emma. The kiss in the jungle, his suggestive dare, had left him with unexpected results. By the time everyone had returned to Storybrooke, Emma had returned to her life. Life for Killian changed forever. His heart soon shifted from his desire for vengeance and his ship, to a woman with walls that only time could bring down. While fighting Pan's shadow, he'd witnessed a glimmer of hope when she'd turned to him rather than Neil.

"The pirate sailed away believing that it had been the last he'd see of her. The pirate tried to return to the life he'd always known. Every attempt fell short because her kiss and the sensations it brought made it feel wrong. This princess, a woman he'd barely known and had only kissed once, had transformed him into the man he'd never thought he'd be.

Killian thought back to the pain of watching Emma drive away with Henry before the second curse rushed over the town. He'd attempted to return to his life before Emma, realizing there would be no going back to that man. The only way to get back to her would cost him his second love, his ship. Only a magic bean would get him back into her world, to bring her back to Storybrooke where a new danger awaited them. That new danger, Zelina or the Wicked Witch of the West, had used his greatest weakness against him to weaken Emma. Thinking Zelina to be to Ariel, he'd apologized for his choices concerning Eric and had sworn on Emma's name.

His attempts of avoiding the one thing he'd wanted most had been successful until Zelina drown him in a water trough. Emma resuscitated him with mouth-to-mouth, thus stripping away her powers. The adventures to follow had drawn them closer together, closer than he'd thought possible. The night of their return from that long journey, Emma had come to him in front of Granny's Diner. His reward for his sacrifices had been most consuming kiss of all. The two of them stayed lost in each other's presence. It had been the beginning.

"The pirate sailed through treacherous seas and dangers of every kind. Nothing would stop him from saving the woman his heart belonged to. If he died protecting her, he would die a happy man. His life would mean nothing without her in it.

The heat of Hades and Emma's selfless journey to save him from it, black fairy's curse after their wedding, Emma's death and magnificent resurrection, and along with all that had happened flashed behind his eyes.

"The evil queen, sure that she could kill the princess, knew nothing of the powerful magic within the princess' heart. The evil queen vanished when the princess released her magic. The pirate's body refused to move, only his mind raced. The stream of light that flowed from her fingers had been what he'd felt with that first kiss."

Emma smiled and rubber her thumb across his hand.

Killian turned away from their dozing daughter to kiss Emma's hand.

"The pirate emerged from the trees ready to take her into his arms and never let her go again. A light like he'd never known flowed through him when she fell into his arms. The brightest light he'd ever encountered surrounded them both.

"Memories of who he'd been before her disappeared from his memory. Memories what had broken and emptied his heart no longer matter. He would make her is wife and love her for the rest of his life when he returned her to her land."

Killian fought back his tears of joy in knowing the hand he held had been that woman. It had taken two proposals and another set of perils they'd both survive. His only place, in his mind, had been beside Emma Swann. Anywhere life would take Emma, that's where he'd go too.

"Hand-in-hand the pirate and the princess stood before the king to announce her safe return. Emboldened by the powerful love the two now shared, the pirate asked the king for his daughter's hand in marriage. The king stood up from his throne and approached them."

Hope's little face began to relax, her grip on her blanket looser.

The night Killian had asked for David's blessing to marry Emma had been worse than his torture in Hades. Given his past, the chances of David ever giving it were slim to none. In the end, he at least he could say that he tried.

"Sure that the king was about to deny him the honor, the pirate pulled the princess closer to him one more time. The pirate kissed her hand."

All the power of the story passed between Killian and Emma, their sleepy daughter unaware of the truth of the story.

"The king looked upon them both with a fatherly smile upon his face. The king granted the pirate's request. Their wedding drew people from every land. Their love story became a legend told for generations."

Hope's eyes dropped to near close.

"We had a beautiful wedding, didn't we?" Emma whispered.

Killian wrapped his arm around her waist.

"Yes, it was, Darling."

Hope's eyes drooped to a close.

Emma pulled away and kissed her sleeping daughter one last time on her forehead.

Killian kissed Hope's forehead, the story had to be finished.

Killian pushed himself up with his new hand.

"They had a beautiful princess of their own, whose heart was full of her mother's magic." Killian finished the story.

A gentle laugh welled up from inside him.

Wrapping his arms around Emma's waist, he pulled his chest against her back.

"Happens every time." He whispered in her ear.

Emma turned to face him, the mood suddenly changing to something more romantic.

"Your magical princess is tired."

The inflection in her voice, radiance of her eyes, and the suggestive angle of her head told him all she had meant to say.

"Your pirate follows." Killian pulled her close.

Emma led him from his sleeping daughter's room to the doorway. Killian flipped the light switch, darkness filling anything not illuminated by the ceiling of stars above them.


End file.
